Where were YOU when JFK was shot dead?

Here Shropshire Star writer Shirley Tart and other people from around Shropshire share their memories.

Shirley Tart:

So where were you when President Kennedy was shot? For millions, of course, the answer is easy: you weren't even born.

For those of us who were, the death of John F. Kennedy stands engraved on our memories forever.

The targeted president, the face of his horrified wife, desperate security men flinging themselves at his car, the fatal crack from a gun – all frozen in one instant of terror which was to capture and change the world.

None of that, of course, was immediately available to us by tablet, iPad, iPhone, big screen as it all is today. Unless we were hunched over a small black and white TV set (if we were lucky enough to own such a luxury), news filtered through in very different ways and at a very different pace.

In my case, just out of my teens, I was with a group of buddies at a Young Conservative Ball at Terry Heath's Town House in Wellington.

The guest list was impressive and we were looking for a night to remember. Well, so it was. As we clocked up our trays of risqué Babychams for the girls, mild beer shandies for the boys, touched up the lippy and prepared to rock and even roll a bit, the room quietened as the Member of Parliament and his party arrived with some ceremony.

Captain Bill Yates then held the seat and was so popular many supporters of other parties used to say "Well, I can't vote for you, Bill lad, but I won't vote against you".

As well as a great friend of the Middle East, Bill was also very knowledgeable on American politics and he and his wife Camilla had many friends in its high places. Their eldest son Tom was born prematurely in the States where he and his mother stayed for some time before the tiny little chap (known from then on as Tom Thumb) could travel home. So America was close to all their hearts.

And it was with obvious and genuine distress and emotion that the MP took to the stage and told revellers the shocking news that President John Kennedy had been shot. Shot dead.

That was the moment the ballroom fell silent, the music ended and the official party led by Bill Yates, left the stage and the premises out of respect. He made a point, though, of urging the merry-makers to carry on making merry. That's what the likes of John Kennedy would have wanted, he said. For life to go on.

Well of course it did, after a fashion.

But momentarily, most of us sat subdued and more in whispering than jolly mode, taking in this shocking news.

• Do YOU remember where you were when you heard the news? Share your memories in the comment box below.

However, being predominantly young people, many simply friends of friends of the local junior politicians and knowing little of the Kennedys, things did buck up a bit, drinks still got supped and chatter began again, though laughter no longer had much of a place in that evening.

I'm not sure what time everyone else left but I went relatively early because the Town House took a call from MP Bill suggesting I called round on my way home and took comments from him for the paper.

Remember, I was a keen young journalist as well as part of a fun-loving group – and such a momentous international story, especially with local connections, touched all the reporting buttons as well.

I also lived near Bill and Camilla at Stirchley. We were friends and I often took their four small boys to school in Newport. I did call round that night for Bill's tribute and then went home, agog to tell my mum and dad about it.

As an aside (but an important one) at the end of the 1960s, the Yates family emigrated to Australia where Bill eventually became an Australian MP as well.

But we remained pals. I visited them and, on frequent trips back home, they stayed with us on the Shropshire leg of the journey. Bill died three years ago, Camilla earlier this year, ending a dear friendship which spanned such a long time and many momentous happenings.

Not least, the premature death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on that November day 50 long years ago.

This was not just the loss of a world leader but the end of a charismatic spell which saw a handsome young American swept to power, then held in that moment forever.

Camelot stuff, yes. And the reason it grabbed our emotions in the way it did was that here was another hero never to grow old. Who knows what the future may have held? He could have created a total a mess of his life, of his nation and left a legacy the world didn't want or need.

But an assassin took him before his time and the human race continued to adore his memory as instantly predicted, and already reflected in newspapers the next day. I was then working on the Shropshire edition of the Express & Star, floating between the Tan Bank office in Wellington and the Wolverhampton head office – the year before the Shropshire Star began.

But I was only a junior, a barely noticeable minnow in the great pool of writers.

However, I do remember the atmosphere, the frantic search for different angles and the gratitude for any contribution. It was the first such momentous and emotional story in which I was involved.

John Challis

71, actor, from Ludlow:

"I can't believe that it's 50 years already. I was in Bexhill-on-Sea at the De La Warr Pavilion doing only my second job in theatre. My landlady had a television and broke the news to me.

"I was shocked and I remember feeling deeply saddened because he was only a young man. He was such a hope for the future.

"I wasn't politically-aware, I was only about 20 years old. He faced down the Russians, which was really significant because it was Cold War time and everyone was terrified of them. That was fantastic one.

"Everyone thought the whole thing would blow up with the Cuban missile crisis. But he solved it. He wasn't much older than us, he was a young man, so we related to him. In many ways, it was a new dawn. He was a liberaliser and came over as the man of the people."

David Lloyd

80, Shropshire councillor, from Gobowen:

"Television sets were small and film quality was poor and so early reports of the shooting were very indistinct

"It was a memorable moment for all the wrong reasons and sent shockwaves across the world. He was a very charismatic man, blunt and outspoken.

"He was a spell binder and yet, while I was in awe of his charisma I was never very sure of the substance of what he was saying."

"The world was in the middle of the cold war and Kennedy was standing up to Cuba and Russia.

"The people of Oswestry had a special place for the president and his wife in their hearts. They had made a secret visit to Oswestry to stay with their very good friends, David Orsmby Gore, who had been Ambassador to America, and his wife Sylvia."

Deborah Knox

66, retired journalist, from Valeswood near Nesscliffe:

"I was 16 at the time and had been to a dance in Astley near Shawbury with my friend, Sue.

"We heard the news when we got home and were in complete shock.

"He was the Obama of his time, a very charismatic figure with of course a very beautiful and sophisticated wife.

"They were a very popular couple.

"At school everyone had wanted Kennedy to win against Nixon in the election."

John Abram

70, former High Sheriff of Shropshire, from Oswestry:

"It stopped everything. I think for everybody it was a stunned silence.

"It was completely out of the blue. I would have been about 20 – I didn't really take on board the significance at the time.

"I saw it on TV, a black and white 12 inch screen.

"I felt disbelief initially. One minute you have got this cavalcade, with this smiling chap. The next minute, there's chaos and he's been shot."

Glyn Davies

69, MP for Montgomeryshire:

"I was 19 and in those days I was working on the family farm in Castle Caerionion. I didnt find out about it until I went in for tea, before milking about about 4pm. I was standing in the kitchen when my mother told me. I was pretty stunned.

"Everything unfolded before us on the television over the following days, the death, the arrests and the funeral. We all sat in front of the television watching, it was quite unreal and it hit everyone quite hard.

"Kennedy was young and, although the gloss had worn off him a little in the USA, he was still seen as a hugely exciting world figure in Britain."

Eva Allan

79, former Newport mayor, from Newport:

"The night it was announced my mum had a stroke and two weeks later she died.

"It was without doubt connected to the shock of the news. It was surprising how many people were affected by it.

"She had been such a strong person who had stood up to everything else in her life, yet the assassination of a man on the other side of the world had such a huge impact. It brings back bad memories for me."

John Conyerd

74, retired salesman, from Newport:

"I was living in Wolverhampton at the time and was listening to the radio when the news was announced.

"I just had to tell someone so I opened my front door and there was a guy riding his bike down the street.

"I just shouted at him that Kennedy had been shot. He just looked at me and carried on. You just felt like you had to tell someone."

Councillor Michael Williams

72, county councillor, from Machynlleth:

"I can remember clearly where I was when this terrible news broke. I was walking down Maengwyn Street in Machynlleth and felt absolutely deflated.

"JFK was an inspiration to me, how he represented democracy, equality and and how he stood up to the Communists.

"He paved the way for Barack Obama really and I will never forget how charismatic Kennedy was. His speeches were exceptional and he was a brilliant president.

"The news just hit me and I could not believe it. He was so young. I spent some time thinking about his work and what he represented and looking back 50 years on I will do the same again."

Angela Bright

69, chairman Oswestry Access Group, from Chirk Bank:

"People felt personally affected when JFK was shot. It happened 50 years ago so I would have been 19.

"I was working in the office of Singleton and Co, a wholesale tobacconist, when somebody came in to tell us.

"I remember one older lady who worked with us who was particularly upset.

"Even though it happened in America, I think everyone in Britain felt somehow personally affected."

Reverend Richard Hayes

74, Vicar of St Alkmund's Church and vice chairman of the Friends of the Lord Hill Column group, from Shrewsbury:

"I remember it clearly. I was sitting in the living room of my small flat on the Kings Road when the news came on the radio."

"It is strange how an event like that focuses your mind. I heard the news and I remember clearly the chair I was sitting in, the shape of the room, what I had had for supper.

"I knew this was a momentous occasion. I was 24 and knew the world had seen something massive. The next day the atmosphere in London was strange, everyone was talking about it and wanting to know who had done it and why."

Betty Newman

75, florist from Shrewsbury

"I remember it all vividly. I was at home watching the TV when the show I was watching was broken in to and someone said that JFK was shot. I thought 'my goodness' and I couldn't believe it when I saw the footage of the shooting. The blood on Jackie Onassis's dress was horrific.

"But it was the funeral that got to me.

"My children were four and two at the time and watching Jackie Onassis walk along with the two little children at the funeral sent chills up my spine.

"It was so traumatic because the media did not cover that sort of thing at the time so seeing it made it even more shocking."

Deborah Fox

59, retired teacher, from Shrewsbury:

"I was on holiday in Belgium with my parents. We were walking past a shop selling televisions when I saw footage of the shooting on the screens in the window.

"I thought it was a film, but my parents knew what it was straight away and got very upset. My dad told me it wasn't a film but was the news. I didn't really understand and perhaps because it was happening in America, it didn't really affect me that much. But my parents kept talking about it and there was a very strange feeling, nowadays we see things like that on the television and in papers all the time but then it was shocking."

Jim Grant

61, president of the Market Drayton Rotary Club, from Market Drayton:

"I was a school pupil in Canada at the time of the assassination. "I was in school and the teacher came over the tannoy and said President Kennedy has been shot.

"I had to then do my paper round which I did for a bit of pocket money but I can remember thinking 'Oh gosh, the world is going to end'.

"I thought the Russians had killed him because at the time there was a lot of tension between the two countries with the Cuban missile crisis. I really thought it could be the start of World War Three."

Richard Westwood-Brookes

63, historical expert at Mullock's Auctioneers in Church Stretton, from Bucknell

"I absolutely remember it, it's indelibly etched upon my mind.

"I was a boy scout in Wolverhampton, I went along and we started about 7pm. I remember the deputy scout master coming in and saying, almost matter of fact: 'I see they've shot Kennedy then'.

"We said, 'What do you mean?' and he said 'Yeah, Kennedy's dead'.

"Then it went on to be rather a sombre evening and we said prayers at the end.

"When I came back home it was all over the TV and my family were in tears. I would have been 13."

Graham Mann

73, market worker, from Shrewsbury:

"I was a 23-year-old joiner working in a carpentry workshop in Kidderminster. As I remember it, someone rushed in to tell us about it all. I was very shocked to hear what had happened.

"We all regarded him as a force for good and we realised there would be repercussions following this.

"We knew it was going to be huge and wondered who had instigated it and even now, no one has been able to work it out.

"If it hadn't happened I think America would be a very different place to what it is today. Obama seems to be trying to do a lot of what JFK was doing all those years ago."

Sue Mann

70, market worker, from Shrewsbury:

"I remember the girls in the office being dreadfully upset. We were only young.

"I was working at 25M.U. Hartlebury, which was an RAF base just outside of Kidderminster. The news of the shooting spread around the offices like wildfire.

"I thought JFK was lovely and a lot of the girls in the office where I worked thought he was lovely too. We were all in our 20s and 30s and we were all very upset. With the shooting the USA missed the chance of being a very different place. He was genuinely interested in people. What the shooting was all about, I don't know."

Norman Cottrell

76, president of Bridgnorth Chamber of Trade, from Bridgnorth:

"The time JFK was shot I was working in the Telegraph Laboratory at AT&E Bridgnorth, I had been married less than two years and remember being quite worried that such a good world leader, as Kennedy undoubtedly was, could be so easily got rid of, what next was the worry.

"At that time we had an American colleague visiting us in the lab and he was visibly shocked by the news so much so that he left immediately to go home and be with his family.

"Shock and dread were the emotions all round at the time, and utter amazement at the unfolding events that occurred in the days following, first his killer Harvey Oswald arrested and then he in turn shot and killed by Jack Ruby, watching it unfold on television was so unreal it seemed like a clip from a Hollywood movie.

"What really brought it home to me was to witness Dickie Day our flamboyant American colleague rushing off home with tears in his eyes."

Paul Rushworth

57, magician, from Shrewsbury:

"Our family have always known where we were on the day Kennedy was shot.

"My dad was quite a well known judo expert, and that day he and the Shrewsbury Judo Club put on a demonstration at the old Shrewsbury swimming baths.

"I was seven-years-old, and with my neighbour, who was also seven-years-old and called Steven Hayley we were performing a routine dad had taught us. The baths had been covered over with a wooden stage where the judo mat had been erected, and I remember everyone laughing because when we got on the mat and knelt down to bow, we were in the wrong position and Steven got up and walked over to me and told me to swop places. I remember being very embarrassed because everyone was laughing. The shooting, which had happened earlier in the day didn't put people off attending, because they tell me the place was packed to the rafters. So, that is where me and my family were on the night JFK was shot."

Vernon Bushell

81, former mayor and councillor, from Shrewsbury:

"We were just moving from Dawley to Shrewsbury and we were unpacking the removal van.

"My wife told me to switch on the television to keep our daughter, who was quite young at the time, quiet while we tried to unpack the van. We set up the TV in the living room and switched it on and there was a newsreader on. I said to my wife that something must have happened and then the newsreader said about a shooting and we realised Kennedy had been shot.

"It was unbelievable. I will always remember that day. I thought he was a great president and a brave man. He was a good guy."

Brian Mason

73, former editor of the Telford Journal, from Telford:

"I was working as a reporter for the East Grinstead Observer and was living in a flat above the office. I had just taken the rubbish downstairs and I remember my wife shouting down the stairs for me to hurry back because the news was on the wireless.

"JFK had visited just five miles away in Forest Row earlier that year.

"The sheer impact of the news stopped everything. The only modern day comparison would be the death of Diana or the Twin Towers."

Keith Osmund-Smith

73, Minister of Madeley Baptist Church, from Telford:

"I have a clear memory of playing in the alleyway by my house in Wolverhampton when my father came out and said in a very shocked voice, 'They've shot Kennedy'.

"Even at 13 I realised how huge the news was. From that moment the whole world seemed to stop for a time. No one was left untouched by the horror. It was the only topic of conversation.

"This man had stood up to Russia over missiles in Cuba. He secured a safe future for the world.

"The world was a poorer place from that moment on. No wonder the excesses of flower power and free love followed in its wake."

Jim Smithers

66, Mayor of Ludlow, from Ludlow:

"I was doing my last year at school and debating what to do. I was working for a small independent butchers in Weston-Super-Mare.

"I can remember watching it on the news, it was a big story, who really did it and so on.

"I think pretty much everybody was shocked, but as a 16-year-old you think 'It's America, there are gangsters and hoodlums and there are shootings all the time', and he wasn't the first president to be shot."

Reverend Richard Hill

61, church rector, from Church Stretton:

"I was 11 years old and I remember waking up in the morning when my mother came into the room where me and my brother were sleeping - and told us that the president was dead.

"We were living in north west London at the time.

"Funnily enough, when me and my brother argued my mother said we were like Khrushchev and Kennedy - so his name was spoken in our house."

Peter Love

68, PR consultant, from Shrewsbury:

"I was an 18-year-old cub reporter on the Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News and was walking over ground where the Shirehall now stands and met a friend who told me that JFK had been shot.

"It was a total shock, there's no question about that. Not knowing who was behind the shooting was worrying. Was it the Russians? What sort of enemy was it and what would it mean to the security of the world?"

Linda Crane

From Shrewsbury:

"My surname as a child was Wainwright and we lived at 12 Mary Webb Road, Meole Estate, Shrewsbury.

"I was nearly eight when John F Kennedy was assassinated. My sister Susan, who was nine, told me he'd been shot. I was at the time playing in the garden on a cold but bright day. I burst into tears and said when I died I was going to find Mr Kennedy and tell him how sorry I was.

"At the 50th anniversary of this dreadful occasion, I stand by what I said then. November 22, 1963, was my wake-up day when I realised that people could be so cruel. I didn't believe the so-called facts then.

"I believe we will never know what really happened. To my child's mind JFK was a hero and that is what he will always be to me.

"Even though I was not quite eight years old, I was very aware of the controversy regarding JFK's visit to Dallas. The media had already said he could be in danger and I had already made my mind up that he shouldn't go. I followed the after stories.

"My goodness, 50 years have gone by since that day and I still have pangs of sadness about it. It certainly affected my life, perhaps even shaping my future!"

Bryan Weaver

From Gnosall:

"It was the occasion for the annual dinner of Severnside Bowling Club at Morris's on Pride Hill, Shrewsbury, in the beautiful upstairs Tudor banqueting hall, now all demolished. I had been invited by my father and while enjoying the main course a member of the staff entered the room and proceeded to the top table and, bending down, spoke to the club president, Jim Fullwood.

"I remember seeing the look of disbelief when, after about three minutes to gather his thoughts, he stood up, and banging the table for attention, addressed the silent company saying that he had just been informed that the President of the United States had been shot, but did not know the extent of the injury.

"Not really realising the true seriousness of the incident we carried on with the meal. About 10 minutes later again the door opened and the same man approached the president, but this time there was a deathly expectant silence as the club president rose And announced that the president had died.

"Everyone seemed to be in a state of shock, and many could not continue with the dinner and left, including all on the top table, out of respect. "

Dorothy Roberts

From Wellington:

I was a a student nurse at the Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital and I know exactly where I was – I was in the nurses' home by the front door.

"The home sister – I think her name was Sister Frances – came out of her office and told us. She must have had a radio on," said Mrs Roberts, who at the time was Miss Dorothy Franklin.

"There was a group of us, about to go on duty. We reacted with surprise and amazement. I have a feeling we were probably too young to be horrified. I don't think the full political implications would've touched us at all. It would have been more on a personal level – it would have been 'Oh gosh, how awful, poor chap', not 'what's the world going to do now?'."

Dave Wallace

From Broseley:

"I would have been 18 and a pre-foundation student at Shrewsbury School of Art and was living at 38 Mount Pleasant Road, Shrewsbury, just down from where Radio Shropshire is now. I can remember the night on television when everything stopped. I remember that there was an interruption on the news bulletin saying there were stories coming that were saying that the president had been shot.

"The family gathered round and then came the news that he was dead. And then there was disbelief.

"I particularly remember the That Was The Week That Was programme which came on late at night as a tribute, with Millicent Martin singing a tribute to Kennedy. I thought that was one of the most outstanding things the BBC did. It was a moving tribute to him."

Brian Cross

From Whitchurch:

"I remember exactly where I was when the news of JFK's shooting was announced. I was 17 and was fiddling with the radio at home trying to get the American Forces Network in Germany at my home in Sandbach, Cheshire. There was talk on the the AFN news of a shooting in Dallas which had just happened. I don't think that JFK was actually pronounced dead at that stage. Although this was later carried on the BBC and ITV news bulletins, I must have been one of a few people in Britain at that time to hear this on an American station."

• Do YOU remember where you were when you heard the news? Share your memories in the comment box below.